Bucking Scott's plan, Senate proposes merit-based raises for teachers

TALLAHASSEE -- Less than three weeks into the legislative session, Gov. Rick Scott's signature proposal to give across-the-board pay raises to teachers appears to be in serious trouble.

On Wednesday, the Senate unveiled a proposed education budget that includes the salary increases.

But the upper chamber rebuffed Scott's pitch to award $2,500 to each schoolteacher in Florida. Instead, Education Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, proffered his own plan to distribute the dollars based on performance.

"We want to make sure the plan is tied to some form of [student] achievement," Galvano said, adding that he wants to let school districts decide the specifics.

House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, has also indicated that he won't support Scott's call for across-the-board pay raises.

In a statement Wednesday, he stressed "the importance of merit pay" and noted that "Florida's Constitution does not allow the Legislature or the governor to set individual teacher salaries."

Despite the resistance from fellow Republicans, the governor held firm.

"Our teachers are doing a good job," Scott said. "I think the right thing is to give each of them a $2,500 pay raise."

Scott blasted Weatherford for taking an "inconsistent" position on the issue.

"I find it interesting that the speaker is against the pay raise for classroom teachers, but he's OK with an across-the-board pay raise for state workers and no performance funding for universities," Scott said.

Weatherford, playing into the theatrics of the budget-building process, responded with a terse tweet: "His staff should reread our budget!"

Scott has made across-the-board pay raises for all classroom personnel his top priority this session. The proposal would cost $480 million.

In some ways, the Senate's proposed education budget represents a win for Scott. Galvano has set aside the full $480 million Scott had asked for. Some observers predicted the Senate plan would include far less.

The key will now be the House education spending plan, which has yet to be released.

House Education Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Erik Fresen, R-Miami, said he "should have enough money to be able to thoughtfully address additions to teacher salaries."

But Fresen said it was too soon to say how much would go toward teacher raises, or how the House would propose distributing the money.

Fresen called the upper chamber's merit-pay proposal "uncomfortably vague." He did, however, praise the Senate plan for giving flexibility to school districts.

Galvano, Fresen's counterpart in the Senate, stressed that the plan released Wednesday was not the final version of his chamber's proposed education budget.